


the four day sleepover

by therudestflower



Category: Outer Banks (TV)
Genre: Big John's Legitimately A+ Parenting, Gen, Is that not a tag yet????, Kid Fic, Luke's A+ Parenting, Pre-Season/Series 01, Where is JJ's Mom, Where is John B's Mom, parental abandonment, this doesn't answer that but man the impact
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-08
Updated: 2020-05-08
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:34:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24076810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/therudestflower/pseuds/therudestflower
Summary: John B stayed up all night for the first time when he was eleven. JJ showed up and they walked down the coast all night. It was awesome, and so was Dad saying JJ could stay with them for three whole days after.It's not until years later that John B puts the vague signs that something was wrong into a complete picture.
Relationships: John B & JJ (Outer Banks)
Comments: 15
Kudos: 136





	the four day sleepover

The first time John B saw the black sky turn almost too quickly to light blue, he knew he was witnessing something exceptional. This time when one minute its night, and tide pulling him into another dimension, suddenly it was a time that hadn’t existed before. His whole life, time had only been day or sunset or night, and without his dad’s permission he’d snuck out to witness something he wasn’t supposed to see. 

Well, he hadn’t snuck out so much as JJ showed up and he didn’t want his friend to be alone. 

JJ had a watch, and informed him that another name for that time was 4:30 AM. 

“Oh,” John B said, “That’s weird.” 

“Why?” JJ asked. He was stooped over, looking for more stuff to throw into the water. They’d found bottles, caps, lighters, and rocks, but JJ had been searching for hours for something better to throw. It’d taken them miles down the shore.

“I’ve been out at 4:30 before,” John B said, “but it felt really different.” 

John B had been out at 4:30 tons of times, especially now that he was eleven, but it wasn’t like this. Dad would wake him up while it was still dark out and just about drag him out of bed and onto the boat. Sometimes John B would fall asleep while they set out, and wake up to the light, and other times he listened to Dad tell stories while the world woke up. He’d always been with Dad and he always knew what was going on. He always woke up to the world looking like this, he’d never been part of it happening before. 

It was cold and the light activated animals and bugs around them, making the hours they’d spent walking almost silently in the dark seem like a dream. 

“Let’s go back.” He slowed down, but JJ sped up. “Hey, we have to be back for school.” 

JJ maybe didn’t hear him, so John B ran up and put his hand on his shoulder. He’d barely made contact when JJ jerked away and put space between them. “JJ, we have to go back to my house. You can eat breakfast with us, my dad can drive us to school maybe.” 

“I’m not going back,” JJ said, eyes on the ground, looking for stuff to throw. “You can go back if you want to.” 

John B was mature for his age, and even at eleven, he knew that it was bad when he woke up to his best friend hitting his bedroom window and silently asking him to come outside. 

JJ did weird things sometimes. JJ stole a lot, and other kids would follow him into town and bet that he couldn’t get away with taking out a big bottle of coke, or a lighter and he won every time, walking out of stores with a big grin on his face, waiting to get around the corner to show off his prize. 

Sometimes he stole from John B’s house too. Weird stuff, like once Dad’s toothbrush, and another time he took all their batteries. And he was late a lot, and missed school a lot and when John B asked him about it, JJ just looked at him with wide crazy eyes and said, “What are you, obsessed with me? Stop being annoying.” 

John B knew it was time to get really annoying and seem obsessed. JJ barely talked while they walked further and further from home, but they had to turn around. JJ veered away from the coast into a cluster of trees where it was so much darker. John B didn’t want to follow him into the dark, but he knew he had to. Taking a deep breath, he stepped into the dark of the trees, reaching out for his friend. 

“JJ we’re going to get in trouble if we don’t go home,” John B said, using a strong loud voice. 

“I don’t care!” JJ yelled. John B couldn’t even see him.

“Your mom is going to be so upset,” John B said. “She’ll come to my house again and then--” 

_bam!_

A fast, heavy body knocked into John B, and just before it hit he saw JJ’s face. It still scared him so bad. He felt like his entire body was electrocuted and he could feel his heartbeat in his face. John B ran out of the trees away from a monster or a bear or a chupacabra because maybe something else had taken JJ’s face. 

He ran back to the coast, where the light from the moon reflected off the water. Breathing hard, he only stopped when he saw JJ and that he wasn’t mauled by a bear. John B leaned over and put his hands on his knees. “Fuck you JJ,” he said. It was fine to swear when something really bad happened, Dad said, and that was _really bad._ “Why did you do that?” 

JJ put his hand on John B’s back and awkwardly said, “Sorry.” 

“We have to go back,” John B repeated. “My dad is going to be worried, and your mom is too.” He straightened up and held his hands up like, _what can you do?_

JJ’s face didn’t have any expression, but somehow it looked like it hurt to have his face that way. “Can I borrow some clothes for school?” he eventually asked. 

God that was so stupid. “Yeah,” John B said, “you always do when you sleep over, right? Okay? Can we go back?” 

“Don’t--” JJ stopped himself. “Don’t tell your dad I was here. Just meet me out back with a shirt and waffle or something, okay? I’ll get on the bus with you. Don’t tell anyone.”

Confused, but satisfied that they were going back, John B agreed. 

Their plan worked, and all day John B felt like he had a million miles of energy. He slept for a little when he got home, and on the bus and during school breakfast, but other than that John B was Awake. He was on fire in Gym, and he felt alive with the secret that he hadn’t slept for a minute all night. During Reading, he whispered to JJ that they should see if they could do it the next night, but JJ had gone from his normal hyper and loud to exhausted. He fell asleep twice, and got sent to the office for yelling at their teacher for waking him up. 

JJ getting sent to the office wasn’t new, and neither was how when he got back, he stared out the window and didn’t do any work until the day ended and they got on the bus. Usually, JJ stayed on longer than John B, but today he got off the bus with him without saying anything. John B was eleven, but he knew something was wrong, he just didn’t know why he knew that. 

His concerns disappeared when they got home. Dad was there, and he smiled and said, “Talked to your dad, John Jacob, convinced him to let us steal you for a while.”

JJ immediately perked up, a wide grin spreading across his face. “Really? How long?” 

Dad frowned and tilted his head, thinking. “Hmm. I think we can manage the whole weekend without him accusing us of kidnapping.” 

It was Thursday, that meant _three nights and four days._ Really four nights too, because Dad didn't even know about last night. John B hopped up and down, smiling mostly because JJ finally was. “Dude, this is going to be so much fun!” and JJ nodded quickly, smiling.

Dad acted like it was a special occasion, which was right because a four-day sleepover _was_. The first night he let them rent a movie on the TV and showed them how to make popcorn over a fire out back. 

“What if I just lived here?” JJ asked on Saturday, while they were falling asleep. 

“Like all the time?” John B asked. 

“Yeah,” JJ said, voice a little too loud for lying in bed with the lights out and supposed to be falling asleep. “I can just stay here, and I can get my own stuff so your dad doesn’t spend any money on me. My dad would like that better.” 

John B yawned. “But your mom would miss you.” 

JJ’s mom sometimes was gone, and when she was, JJ said she was in Italy visiting her family, but once their teacher asked JJ when his mom was getting “out” which meant jail and also meant that JJ threw a book at her and got suspended. 

But when she was there, JJ’s mom sometimes brought them to get milkshakes. She wore flower dresses and sat on the beach while they swam, even though they were old enough to go alone. Without needing a reason why she would pull JJ close and wrap her arms around him while talking to another adult. JJ would stay still for a minute, but pretty quickly start wiggling and pulling away from her, complaining about wanting to play with John B. He wanted to tell JJ to shut up and stay with his mom because it wasn’t like everyone had a mom who hugged them for no reason. 

“No she wouldn’t,” JJ said, “she’s gone.” 

“She always comes back,” John B said, “you’re lucky she always comes back. I want to sleep.” JJ shut up then. 

It ended on Sunday when JJ’s scary dad showed up at their house all sweaty and loud and just barked, “Come on,” through the screen door. JJ stood up and walked out like he was a puppet being pulled out by strings and barely waved when John B said bye. 

JJ didn’t come to school until three days later, wearing brand new shoes and a bright t-shirt, with stories about going to the mainland to buy a trampoline and a new gun. “We stayed at a hotel with breakfast with bacon,” JJ said, speaking quickly and smiling, “and the TV had all the channels.” 

All in all, John B chalked the whole thing up to being a pretty cool week for him, and an even cooler week for JJ. Over time, the passing feelings that something was wrong faded, turning the week into a pure fun childhood memory. It wasn’t until years later that John B put together the math that JJ had showed up the night his mom left for good.

It was when JJ stayed at his house for more than a week, something that was no longer odd. It wasn’t accompanied by vague feelings or something being wrong either, but rather concrete, and sometimes visible signs that lots was definitely Wrong. But this time, JJ wasn’t running from home, he was there for John B, holding him together while he waited for his dad to come home. For any sign that he would ever come home. 

Pope and Kie came by with food from their parents' businesses, but JJ was the one who went out and explained to Ward why John B wasn't coming to work without getting him fired, and JJ was the one who convinced him to make popcorn over the fire and basically tried to keep John B from exploding in his own head. 

Two nights in a row, John B couldn’t sleep, so JJ didn’t either. He lay on the couch while John B paced, never far from his phone or radio. When he eventually had enough wherewithal to realize what was going on, he managed to say, “Hey, thanks for staying up with me.” 

Still lying on the couch, JJ raised his arm with a thumbs up. “You did it for me when my mom was gone.” 

The week of their exciting first all-nighter, the four-day sleepover and JJ’s new shoes came crawling into John B’s mind. That JJ’s mom never came back again, and their life unfolded into more and more all-nighters and sleepovers and they never talked about how that was where it started. 

“I’ll stay here as long as you want,” JJ said, interrupting John B’s fatigued reassessment of their lives. ”Forever even.” 

“Yeah,” John B said, “Let’s sleep tonight, though. Then we can do the forever.” 

**Author's Note:**

> This fic and "Long Way Around" were originally going to be a chapter fic of the different faves staying up all night but they turned out so different they just get to have their own fic. 
> 
> I love hearing from you!


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